Rapid expansion by domestic corporations in the finance sector, coupled with the limited supply of grade-A offices, has contributed to rent increases and a decline in vacancies in the commercial property leasing market.

Weakening demand from the banking and finance sectors, coupled with a rise in secondary space returning to the market, pulled down prime office rents in Central in the third quarter, property consultants say.

And they expect rents there will continue to fall in the next 12 months.

With supply of grade A office space in Shanghai surging and rentals under downward pressure, some tenants are moving into more prestigious addresses from office buildings on the fringes of the core business district.

Benign militancy is a contradiction in terms. But it sums up the action of doctors who joined the protest by Link mall tenants on Thursday. The three-hour shutdown involved neither loss of income nor inconvenience to their patients, because it fell largely during their usual lunch break.

A meeting yesterday between shop owners and The Link Reit yielded no results as they remained deadlocked over rent increases in public estate shopping malls. The Federation of Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Public Housing Estates Resident and Shop Owner Organisations said it demanded the real estate investment trust decrease rents by 10 to 20 per cent.

Lawmakers are assured that they will have a say on the contentious amendment

A bill to amend the Housing Ordinance to eliminate the controversial clause that caps public housing rent will be ready for Legislative Council scrutiny early next year, a housing official said yesterday.

The Housing Authority's public consultation on the rent policy review comes to an end this week. Its objectives include adopting a more flexible system of setting rents for public housing. That would incorporate tying rents closer to the value of flats and to tenants' income, and promoting the long-term sustainability of the public housing programme.